Nov 22 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Kurtis Alexander Santa Cruz Sentinel, Calif.

As quickly as the promises of a waste-to-energy plant came this spring, the proposal to use technology to solve the county's trash problems died this week.

The county Board of Supervisors officially ended talks with AdaptiveArc, a Southern California startup that sought to build a so-called plasma-arc gasification facility at the Buena Vista landfill to essentially vaporize municipal waste.

The action, at Tuesday's board meeting, came at the urging of public works officials, who remained unconvinced that the proposal was either safe or effective.

"We were very open to looking at this new technology that was very promising," said county Supervisor Ellen Pirie. "But they lost the opportunity to convince us that it will really work."

Plasma-arc technology, which has been used only on a limited scale in the municipal setting, can be employed to break down trash through the high temperatures of an electric "arc" and convert it into a synthetic gas that can generate electricity.

Officials with AdaptiveArc, however, failed to provide data requested by the Public Works Department, as well as meet information requests of the local air board, which would need to approve emissions permits.

"I'm not happy about this decision, but it has little or nothing to do with how we're progressing," said Kris Skrinak, a managing partner with AdaptiveArc.

Skrinak contends that

plasma-arc technology is the best way to deal with the nation's increasing amounts of trash, which are filling up landfills coast to coast.

The county's landfill is likely to fill within 20 years, and an alternative for waste disposal has not been defined.

Contact Kurtis Alexander at 706-3267 or kalexander@santacruzsentinel.com.

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